The manufacture of note producing musical instruments began as a search for the mechanical equivalent of the human voice. This in fact remained the standard through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance and the early modern period.
Stringed instruments have been known since ancient times. These included such instruments as the lute, a guitar-like instrument with a sound box and fingerboard. A New Kingdom (ancient Egypt, 1380 BC) bronze in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art depicts a dancing Nubian raised on his toes with one knee cocked, left hand high working a fingerboard and right hand plucking the strings in a pose which might be illustrative of a modern rock musician.
But the lute has a much more ancient history, perhaps originating with West Semitic nomadic people who brought the instrument to Mesopotamia, where the archaeological record includes representations dating back to the Akkadian period (2350 to 2170 B.C.), being introduced to the Egyptians, perhaps at the end of the Middle Kingdom Hyksos dynasties (XV to XVII dynasty, 1730 to 1580 B.C.).
In more recent times, stringed lute-like musical instruments continue to be among the most popular instruments. Folk artists throughout the United States have used the guitar, sometimes one of the homemade variety, in a wide range of musical genres including blues, bluegrass, and so forth.
In contrast to percussive instrumentation, the need for amplification of the relatively weak sounds of strings, reeds, and vibrating human lips presented challenges to early musical instrument manufacturers. These challenges were met primarily by resonant systems that mechanically concentrate, and output musical sound. There is a demanding standard in the stability of the instrument if high-quality sound is to be produced.
Moreover, over the years, artists playing acoustic stringed instruments have introduced a wide variety of playing techniques into the music surrounding these instruments. While, perhaps, the ancients only plucked the strings of the lute to achieve a musical tone which gradually decayed, later artists used the bow to produce notes of relatively constant and somewhat controllable amplitude. Modern artists employ a variety of techniques in their performances. Acoustic blues performers may rap their instruments with fingertips, palms or knuckles. Certain violin compositions, typically played by having a horsehair bundle slide across the strings, also call for the strings to be plucked. This results in yet greater demands being put on the mechanical stability of the instrument.
Given the popularity of stringed musical instruments, especially the guitar, people often take them along when traveling. However, they are bulky and poorly suited to convenient transport. They are unlikely to fit into airlines stowaway spaces or under airline seats. In response to this need, guitars with folding necks have been proposed. See for example my earlier United States Design Pat. No. 516,114, and my earlier pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/640,095, filed Dec. 15, 2006. While this instrument is effective, it is difficult to make requiring significant handwork and fine tuning.
Accordingly, there is a need for a stringed instrument which may be a guitar, violin or the like and which is easy to use during a performance, consistent, and rigorous in its transduction of artistic interpretations into an acoustic or other performance and easily transportable. It is believed that the structure disclosed herein is a most effective solution in providing for a highly mobile instrument which may be accommodated to a range of user preferences.
This invention also relates to hinges and particularly what is commonly known as invisible hinges for the use in connection with doors and other swinging articles and the invention described here is an improvement on previous designs for the specific use where a very narrow surface is available for the hinge mechanism and the hinge must be able to support a proportionally much longer perpendicular surface. Also significant to this invention is the method used to locate and install the hinges.
In this type of hinge the hinge parts are connected by pivoted linkages hinged on a hinge pin and sliding on sliding pins, the linkages being within pockets or compartments within the hinge parts, that is the hinge plates or butt plates. An early version of such hinges is a hinge design created by Joseph Soss and bearing his name. It is illustrated in several patents including U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,030,936, 1,484,093, 1,688,996, 1,984,092, and 2,178,271 among others. A hinge of this sort is employed in the above referenced design patent.
These hinges are designed to be invisible when in the closed position and allow for the focal point of the hinge to be below the surface when in the closed position and then extend beyond the surface to allow for a full 180 degree opening. Two basic versions of the hinge are common, the first having a long narrow body with two attachment screws, one located at each end. This style is of a shape requiring a multi-level mortise cut for installation, the second is a cylinder or barrel hinge with a side mounted screw as a means of attachment and requiring a hole to be bored for installation.
These previous designs are of a similar nature but either lacks the clearance necessary, have methods of attachment that are either insufficient or impractical in a guitar with a folding neck and also require a complex process to create the openings for the hinge butt plates or cylinders.
Furthermore, while a version of the previous design has been proven capable of supporting this application to some extent in above United States Design Pat. No. D516,114, it has been found lacking in several areas with regard to effective production beyond the small, hand assembly shop.
First, these hinges, known as “barrel hinges,” require a final outer surface, an example being a fretboard on musical instruments, to be attached out of sequence with normal production procedure and require holes to be bored extremely close to the surface of the fretboard weakening this vital structural member.
Second, these hinges are very difficult to set accurately with respect to depth and alignment. The other version of Soss hinge has better means of securement and greater location and depth control. However, its design only allows for a single hinge to fit in the required area which lacks the structural integrity for this application and lacks sufficient capability to adequately align the two hinged parts. Furthermore, the location of the securement screws is too close to the outer edges of the members, which in this application creates problems because of the lack of material for the screws to properly secure themselves. Currently available versions also lack the opening clearance needed for guitar hinge application. Finally, the means required to cut the mortises is very time consuming and difficult to consistently achieve.
In my copending patent application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/640,095, I proposed an improved hinge for use in a folding guitar.